Rudy Steiner
Rudolf "Rudy" Steiner is Liesel's neighbor. He is eight months older than Liesel, has bony legs, sharp teeth, blue eyes, lemon-colored hair, and likes to mess with the ladies. Despite being the German ideal (blond hair and blue eyes), he does not support the Nazis. As part of a household with six children, Rudy is habitually hungry. He is known throughout the neighborhood due to the "Jesse Owens incident" shia suprise in which he colored himself with charcoal one night and ran one hundred meters at the local sporting field. He is academically and athletically gifted, which attracts the attention of Nazi Party officials, who try to recruit him; when he declines, they take his father, Alex Steiner. He also gets into trouble at the Hitler Youth due to his smart mouth and rebellious nature, and their vindictive group leader hates him. Rudy becomes Liesel's best friend, often accompanying her on her adventures and talking her through her problems. He also teases her, regularly (though always unsuccessfully) asking her for a kiss mostly after he has helped her to accomplish something - for instance, when one of Liesel's books (and most prized possession) is thrown into a river which was nearly frozen, he dives in without thinking twice about it and rescues it. Rudy is killed in the Himmel Street bombing. He dies trying to inform Liesel that he loves her; Liesel finally grants him a kiss after his death. Liesel then kisses his corpse and she regrets not kissing him earlier when he requested it. Rudy is Liesel's lemon-haired sidekick. He's the Saukerl (pig boy) to her Saumensch (pig girl), as they affectionately refer to each other. He starts off in the novel as a ten-year-old boy with "bony legs, sharp teeth, gangly blue eyes, and hair the color of a lemon" Bony legs aside, Rudy wants to be a star runner, like Jessie Owens. Owens, a black American man, won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympic Games, held in Munich, Germany. Needless to say, Hitler was not pleased. Jesse Owens was trampling on his theories of white supremacy. Ten-year-old Rudy so admired Owens that he painted himself with charcoal and tried to reenact the race in down town Molching. We know immediately that Rudy probably won't grow up to be a Nazi. Notice how the novel stresses Rudy's appearance. Physically, he is the picture of the Nazi ideal. Mentally, he is the opposite. Jessie Owens is included in Rudy's vision of the ideal. Rudy identifies with Owens because of the shared love of athletics, which cuts across racial, ethnic, and religious lines, and other lines of difference. For Rudy, difference is not something to be feared or eradicated. Rudy's Growth Before his tragic death that touched millions of fans' hearts, Rudy has met his goal. Not only has he become a really smart kid, but he's also a great athlete. He grew as a result of his efforts to balance staying alive and resisting the injustices he sees around him. A horrible lesson is learned when this resistance wavers, and ego takes over. To show off to his new Hitler Youth leaders and to show everybody that he's becoming a success, he wins too many races at the Hitler Youth carnival. As a result, he draws the attention of the Nazis, who are recruiting the best and the brightest for a special school. Rudy's parents are horrified and have to make a terrible bargain. Rudy's father Alex is conscripted into the military in exchange for Rudy staying in Molching, on Himmel Street. Of course, these things aren't really Rudy's fault. Like the other characters, he's walking on egg shells. One wrong move could mean his death, or the death of another. (Yes, Rudy's death was very tragic!) Rudy died October 7 1943 after the Himmel Street bombing. But, before his death, he's stepped up his resistance activities. Following the example of Hans Hubermann, Rudy takes bread to give to the Jewish prisoners marching to Dachau. He leaves the food on the ground in the hopes that much of it can be eaten before it's detected by the Nazi guards. Now he's not showing off, just trying to do a little good. Rudy exercises similar judgment when he uses all his strength to stop Liesel from following Max after she and Max have been whipped. He probably saves her life, and Max's as well. We see him becoming more serious, more thoughtful. We see his intelligence blooming, as he processes his world through sharp and kind eyes. His death is one of the most painful aspects of the novel for the readers, for Liesel, and perhaps especially for his father, who returns to Himmel Street to find his family dead. After the Himmel Street bombing, German soldiers go through the bricks and burning buildings, moving dead bodies out and 4-5 German soldiers move a book case for Liesel. The 14-year-old girl is shocked at the scene. She finds her Mama Rosa lying dead on the ground next to what might be her neighbors. Liesel then sees her Papa's body before seeing two German soldiers carrying a half-dead Rudy in their arms. Rudy only had a few seconds to say what he needed to say before he put his head down, closed his eyes, and gave one last huff of air before going into Deaths' hands. Before Rudy's death, Rudy had said to Liesel, "Liesel. I need to tell you something. I..." He then dies and Liesel tries to revive him. She keeps shaking him pleading, "Nein Rudy! Wake up! Wake up Rudy!" Then at the end of the movie, Death says, "Rudy... his soul jumped into my arms." Rudy and Liesel antic interest was surely one of them, but not necessarily as romantic as his love for her. Her feelings for him are never precisely revealed. Why? Because Rudy dies before she can find out. Liesel is just fourteen when Rudy dies. Rudy is fourteen, too, but seems much more sure of his feelings in that area. We have a hard time imagining him falling out of love with Liesel at any point, but that might just be because he'll be forever fourteen in our eyes. We are also told that after Rudy's death, Liesel enters the Amper River with all her clothes on. She's heard talking about a kiss and saying the word "Saumensch" (86.34). "How about a kiss, Saumensch," (45.41) are the words Rudy said to her that day he rescued her book from the Amper River. The day he stopped asking. Liesel's moment in the river and her kissing Rudy's lips when he's dead definitely suggest that she regrets not kissing him. Then there comes the sad part of the movie: When Rudy and his family were killed in the Himmel Street bombing that took place October 7, 1940 during the night. After the bombing, German soldiers and medics go out and try to find all of the deceased and survivers from the bricks and ashes. 4 medics find Liesel where she was the night before: sitting on a stool writing in her notebook that Max gave her as a Christmas gift before he had to leave. A charred shelf lay on top of a beam from the basement of the house and the 4 medics pull out Liesel. The first body she finds near her is her mother, Rosa Hubermann who was killed in the bombing. So was Han Hubermann. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters